Spring Chickens George Miller and Jack Nicholson Called Cher ‘Too Old’

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Cher, Hollywood dancing queen, told a haunting tale to an Atlantic City audience over the weekend. According to The Hollywood Reporter, during her concert, the 72-year-old singer reminisced about how nervous she was about turning 40 in 1986, because despite what you may believe Cher is, in fact, just like us. Her birthday party lifted her spirits, however, as she told the crowd, “… I went to sleep, dreaming these fabulous thoughts of being 40 and it was good, and I was going to get all these movies and I was just so happy.” Unfortunately, the next morning her phone rang and it was George Miller, the director of Witches of Eastwick, with a message, if you can call it that. Cher recalls, “[H]e said, ‘I just wanted to call and tell you that I don’t want you in my movie and Jack Nicholson and I think you’re too old and you’re not sexy.’ Good morning, 40!” Cher then joked that tears “started streaming down my old face,” and that instead of hanging up, as most people in Hollywood apparently do after delivering a string insults, Miller kept going. “He didn’t want to hang up. He just wanted to tell me everything: ‘I hate the way you walk, I hate the way you talk, I don’t like the color of your hair, I don’t like your eyes.’”

And then, finally Cher snapped, “So, finally I was like, ‘Okay, look motherf*cker, yeah, I said the whole thing. I said, ‘You didn’t find me under a rock. I was nominated for an Academy Award for Silkwood. And I got the Cannes Film Festival award for best actress for Mask, so goodbye!’” Cue an eternity of thunderously fabulous applause. Cher did end up playing the role of Alexandra Medford in Witches of Eastwick, alongside Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer, because no motherf*cker on Earth can stand in her way.